Transcript Center of Excellence for Border Security and Immigration

The Compleat Academic
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Section 1
Starting A Career
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A Guide to PhD Graduate School
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Transition from undergraduate level
to graduate study
From learning what to learn how
 From learning texts, lecture notes and
taking exams to learning research and
trying to publish paper
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A Faculty Position or A
Postdoctoral Fellowship
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Attractions of a postdoctoral
fellowship:
Enhance marketability
 Broadening your research domain
 Facilitating the transition from dependence
to independence
 Developing scientific skills
 Balancing personal and professional goals
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The Hiring Process in Academia
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Three important characteristics:
Autonomous
 Self-organized
 Self-starting individual
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Hiring process:
Before interview
 Interview
 After interview
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Job Outside of Academia
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Jobs of nonacademia:
Companies
 Government
 Self-employed
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Differences between academic jobs
and nonacademic jobs:
Autonomy
 Time is money
 Collaborators
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Section 2
Teaching and Mentoring
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Tips for Effective Teaching
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Save everything
Keep good records about how each class
went
Create teaching forms for dealing with
student excuses, complaints
Build a directory of useful phone numbers,
email addresses, and websites
Do not try to reinvent the wheel
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Manage the Faculty-Graduate
Student Relationship
Sources of research ideas in facultystudent collaborations
 The number of research directions
 Work with other faculty
 How many students to advise
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Section 3
Research and Writing
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Setting up Your Lab
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General principles:
Make the most of what you have
 Invest your resources
 Invest your time wisely
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Are you excited about the research question?
 Is the research question related to the big
issue you care about?
 Is the research issue you are considering
important?
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Collaborate
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Obtaining A Research Grant—The
Grant Agency’s View
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Find your founders (NSF, NIH, Companies,
Governments)
 Marketing your research idea
 Writing grants:
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State your aims
Background literature
Preliminary work
Research design
Staffing
Clarify
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Obtaining A Research Grant—The
Applicant’s View
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Think up an idea
Operationalize the idea
Find who might be interested in your idea
Write your proposal
Solicit feedback on your proposal
Get the proposal approved by your institution
Send out the proposal on time
Revise the proposal, if necessary
Resubmit and explain what you have changed
Get funded or start over?
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Writing the Empirical Journal
Article
What should we write?
 How should we write?
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Accuracy
 Clarity
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For whom should we write?
 The shape of an article
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Section 4
Orientation to the
Academic Environment
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Power, politics, and survival in
academia
Classification of universities
 Structure of the university
 Power and Money
 Power within departments
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Managing the department chair and
navigating the department power structure
 Follow
the leader, but first figure
out who the leader really is
 Becoming known and becoming
well-known
 Make
yourself available
 Make yourself valuable
 Protect
yourself at all times
 What to do when things “go south”
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Wiring the ivory tower: the interface of
technology and the academy
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Teaching
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Research
Communication
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Access—syllabus, previous exams, lecture notes, office hours…
Distance learning
E-Mail
From absent-minded to just plain absent
Dissemination
Preservation
Nuts and Bolts
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Computers, Hardware, and Software
Electronic References
Multimedia
PowerPoint
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Section 5
Diversity In Academia
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The dialectics of race: academic
perils and promises
 Academic
pursuits in cultured
context
 Principles of dialectical dynamics
 The dialectical synthesis
Knowing how they work and setting your own agenda within context
gives you the best chance for success.
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Women In Academia
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Presentation of self
 The down side of compassion and cooperation
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Mommy or Earth Mother trap
Overcommitment trap
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Interpersonal relationships
 Family issues
 Career aspirations
 Is academia for you?
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Clinical Psychologists In
Academia
An additional layer of challenges for the
clinical psychologist in academia that has an
impact on all faculty activities
 Responsibilities of clinical psychology
faculty member
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Research
Teaching
Service
Clinical practice
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Varieties of College and
University Experiences
Types of departments
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Small vs large
Pure vs mixed
Bereaucratic vs autonomous
Mature vs immature
Usefulness and limitations of departments as units
Faculty culture/climate of the department
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Academic climate
Social climate
Administrative climate
Resources available
Expectations of faculty
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Section 6
Keeping Your Edge:
Managing Your
Career Over Time
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The academic marathon:
controlling one’s career
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Getting started
Managing your teaching load
 Administrative work
 Research: you remember
research?
 Reading: staying on top of
the field
 Faculty colleagues
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Cont.
Hitting your stride
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Research priorities
Writing
Getting reviews
Providing reviews
Self-promotion
Dealing with the press
Organizing your time
Using the pipeline
From priorities to task statements and time estimates
Organizational aids
Scheduling a day
Dealing with students
What not to do
Should you move?
Getting time to rest and gain perspective
Life outside of work
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Cont.
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Hitting the wall (and the rest of the
race)
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Your biggest problems
The number of evaluations
 The number of committees
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Keeping your career vibrant
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Managing your career:
the long view
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Thinking about the future
Short-term planning (what should we do in
this week)
 Medium-term planning (six-month chunks of
time)
 Long-rang goals (what you want to do with
your academic life)
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Cont.
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Career plans: early career
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Publish papers
Teach courses
Talk to people
Collaborate, but watch out
Keep up with your field
Go to national and specialty meetings
Be willing to perform service
Review papers
Learn to balance “yes” and “no” appropriately
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Cont.
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Career plans: Mid-career
Writing review papers
 Writing books
 Becoming involved in national organizations
 Chair committees
 Working as an administrator
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Late-career direction
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Do not stagnate on the job
Retirement: planning the end game
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